


A Best Friend's Battle

by AnimeTrashFire



Category: Free!
Genre: Ugh, and i stayed for the friendship, hiyori is the WORST okay literally Makoto was OUT OF SHAPE and almost BEAT HIM, i came to free for the abs, i love these boys and how much they love each other so so much, listen, middle school dream team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:07:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26397646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnimeTrashFire/pseuds/AnimeTrashFire
Summary: What Makoto thought about that race.
Relationships: Kirishima Ikuya & Nanase Haruka, Kirishima Ikuya & Tono Hiyori, Nanase Haruka & Tachibana Makoto
Comments: 4
Kudos: 1





	A Best Friend's Battle

**Author's Note:**

> I don't usually like first person fic, but apparently I wrote one???  
> Makoto is the best boy, okay?? I have enduring love for the friendship between him and Haru.  
> also I have an IMMENSE amount of rage in my soul regarding Hiyori Tono and nothing will ever take that away from me.

You know what’s cool? Having a best friend who’ll always fight your battles for you.

Mine does. Ever since we were kids, Haru’s always been there for me. The things that I’m scared of—the dark, the ocean, axe murderers—he’s been standing in between them and me for as long as I can remember.

And me? Well, I stand behind Haru while he conquers the world. He doesn’t make sense to a lot of people. But I’ve known him too long to not understand him. And I decided a long time ago that I just wanted to be there for him, through anything.

I mean, yeah, we’ve had some rough patches. There was a bit of a miscommunication in middle school… and then an actual fight in high school. But I know he’s got me, and I’ve got him.

I guess that’s why what’s going on lately has upset me so much. This is a battle we’re in together, but it hits Haru harder than it hits me.

See, there’s a friend of ours that we can’t get to. Someone we lost touch with in middle school. And it sucks. He’s so close, but this friend of his keeps blocking our path.

And Haru? I know it’s _killing_ him. He and Ikuya—that’s our friend—there were some things left undone between them back then, and it never got cleared up. Ikuya and me were alright before he moved away, but Haru… I know he still feels bad about it.

That’s why it’s so important that we get in touch with Ikuya. Haru wants to apologise, and we all want to tell him we’re still rooting for him.

So the last time we went to try to talk to Ikuya, his friend, this Hiyori Tono, got in our way again. And Asahi and Haru were arguing with him, trying to get him to see that we just want to talk to Ikuya, but he wouldn’t listen. And I was fine to try to keep everyone’s tempers down and keep the situation cool. I’m the support guy, always have been.

But then Tono scoffed at everything we said, told us that middle school was so long ago that Ikuya has probably forgotten all about it, and us, and told us that we don’t have the _right_ to be friends with Ikuya anymore. That hit me hard, but I can only imagine what it did to Haru—his friends are the most important thing in the world for him, right up there with swimming.

I guess that’s why he challenged Tono to a race to settle things—a race ‘for the right to be friends with Ikuya,’ Tono said. And then he started mocking Haru about only swimming free, when his preferred stroke is the backstroke, and said he would deign to swim free for the race.

And something in me snapped.

I swim backstroke.

So I stepped up and said that I would race him. Haru was so surprised, but for once, this was a battle that I could fight for him, and I couldn’t let that go.

And I won’t lie. The way that guy was talking really did have me excited to swim, _really_ swim again. I knew I was out of practice, but I had to do it.

I couldn’t let the race be freestyle. Haru would win, but Tono would probably say it was only because it wasn’t his preferred stroke, and somehow it would come out like we lost anyway.

So I had to. For Haru. For all of us.

For the chance to talk to Ikuya.

I practiced.

Kisumi timed me.

Haru and Asahi gave me pointers.

I had so much fun swimming again.

And I was feeling so good about racing Tono.

It was so good to all be together again.

We just needed Ikuya.

The race was yesterday.

When we were getting ready, Kisumi said that it seemed childish, racing to win someone’s friendship. He may be right, but I told him that good may come from it, that maybe I could understand Tono better after swimming with him. Haru and Asahi agreed with me, said that was obvious, and Kisumi protested that not everyone’s a swimmer.

But I really thought it would help.

So we raced.

He showed up, which we were a little surprised about. He took the opportunity to throw in a dig about keeping his word. Haru didn’t react, but I knew that hurt him. And it just made me want to win even more than I already did.

Asahi blew the whistle, and we were off.

I swam, so hard.

I haven’t worked like that in a long time.

I was neck and neck with him on the turn.

Coming back around, we were pushing like you wouldn’t believe.

And it was so close.

I was _so close_.

But Tono? He’s fast.

And in the end, I couldn’t quite catch him.

Standing in the pool, he said I wasn’t half bad.

I think I smiled?

But I was so disappointed that I had lost. I let everybody down—Kisumi, Asahi, Haru…

Afterwards, he said again that I had put up a decent fight for someone out of practice.

With that tag on there, to remind me of why I’d failed.

I said I didn’t realise he would be that fast.

And I fixed that smile on my face and held out my hand, thanking him for racing me.

And he looked at my hand, left it there, and then he looked up at us.

And with a smile on his face that looked much more genuine than mine felt, he told us we didn’t _deserve_ to speak to Ikuya, much less be his friends.

I felt like I was drowning in the ocean.

Asahi got upset, and Kisumi tried to reign him in.

And then Hiyori told us he’d tell us something about Ikuya we didn’t know, like it was a gift. He reminded us of middle school, when Ikuya had almost drowned. And he told us it had happened again when he was overseas. That Ikuya is _delicate_. But that he overcame everything that happened to him, and he’s stronger now than he ever has been.

That was bad enough. None of us had a reply.

And then with a look in his eyes that I can’t name, Hiyori said to Haru that he’s heard a lot about him, and that he’s noticed a pattern: people who swim with Haru all seem to end up suffering.

And he grinned.

And walked away.

I felt like I was drowning.

For the first time in a long time, I didn’t know what to do.

And we all turned to look at Haru, and he looked like the world didn’t exist anymore.

And then I knew, in that moment, there was nothing I could do.

I had failed.

I thought that for once I could stand between Haru and his fears.

And I was wrong.

And I don’t know what’s going to happen now.

I don’t know how we’re going to reach Ikuya.

Because I lost.

You know what’s cool? Having a best friend who always fights your battles.

You know what’s not cool? Letting your best friend down.

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this in 2018, am just now posting it.  
> am also crying about the fact that there is no season 4 yet.  
> \---  
> having just reread this, am crying again about this episode. my sister and our friend watched the season before me and they talked about Hiyori and how he was the worst—"He made Makoto cry! And he made Haru have the WATERY EYES!"  
> Anyway, you best believe that when I got to this episode, I was SOBBING and sending typo-ridden messages in our group chat. Still not over it.


End file.
